With Romania approaching membership of the European Union, recent statements by Iana Matei who works for the “Reach Out” program helping rescue victims of human trafficking has underlined the extent of the problem the country has with sex trafficking. With between two and three million Romanians working abroad, many of them illegally and many in unregulated industries, Romanians are vulnerable to human trafficking. With poverty driving young women to migration, Matei said “So when a guy introduces himself to a girl and says in Spain they can pick strawberries for 800 dollars a month, they will go, most of the girls have no idea what’s in store for them.”
Of the 218 girls the shelter has helped in the past eight years, only 4 or 5 had any idea that they would be involved in prostitution. Many of the girls are trafficked to Germany, Austria, England, Holland and Belgium. Many are also taken to Dubai. There is a growth in the number of Romanians being trafficked to Spain and Italy because of the similarity in language. To read more on this and related subjects, please visit The Diplomat Bucharest by clicking here.

This week the UK opened a specialist centre to work against human trafficking. The centre, which is in the city of Sheffield in northern England will offer care to victims of human trafficking. There is an emphasis on victims who have been sexually exploited, but the centre will also care for those who have been trafficked into domestic slavery, and forced labour. The centre will also offer training to police as they learn how to effectively fight against human trafficking.
UK Solicitor General Mike O’Brien said;
“Some victims do not even realise they are being trafficked until they arrive and then find the job they were being promised as a waitress turns out to be enforced servitude as a prostitute, including being beaten and raped.
“Today in London I am told that trafficked women can be bought and sold for as little as £3,000. They often live in terror, believing that if they try to escape they will be killed,”
To read more about this and related subjects, please visit Reuters by clicking here, or Gulf Times by clicking here.